Bulgarian press review, December 11, 2009

Press Review
Sofia, December 11 (BTA)

BULGARIA - EU

"Troud" leads with a report from Bonn of how Bulgarian Prime Minister and GERB leader Boyko Borissov took the floor at the 19th congress of the European People's Party (EPP) to ask for support for unfreezing suspended EU funding for Bulgaria and allowing Bulgaria into the euro zone. According to the "Troud" correspondent, the Prime Minister dropped the scripted address and spoke "freely with that familiar convincing sincerity".

"Klassa" and "Monitor" report the election of Bulgarian Foreign Minister Rumiana Jeleva as deputy chairperson of the EPP. Jeleva was supported by 218 of the delegates at the EPP congress and will become one of ten deputy chairpersons elected from among 16 candidates.

THE HOME SCENE

"Monitor" ("Yane to Be Scrutinized for Corruption") writes that the new chief of the parliamentary anti-corruption committee, Dimo Gyaourov, will be examining what he has inherited from his predecessor Yane Yanev. As soon as he took over the leadership of the committee, Gyaourov cancelled a committee meeting. According to Yanev, the meeting was supposed to look into possible conflict of interest involving 14 government ministers.

The change at this and other parliamentary committee was prompted by the disbandment of the group of Order, Lawfulness, Justice (OLJ) which thus lost its right to sit in the leadership of committees and delegations.

"Standard News" carries a story on Mario Tagarinski, the MP who left his OLJ party and caused its disbandment, looking into his habit of walking out of his parliamentary group. Tagarinski has changed four parliamentary groups and he is not yet 52, the author comments.

***
A story in "Ataka" writes of an upcoming rift in BSP. It says some ten MPs are preparing to leave the CfB parliamentary group and set up their own group. The story quotes knowledgeable sources as saying that BSP is putting itself in isolation and loses voters with its decision to participate in the leadership of parliamentary committees.

***
In a "Monitor" interview ("No More Safaris for MPs"), National Assembly Chairwomen Tsetska Tsacheva says that Parliament's budget has been cut by some 10 million leva for next year and it will have to limit its participation in international forums to the EU and countries of big importance.

***
A front-page story in "Douma" ("Army Politicized Again") says that amendments to the Armed Forces Act create an imbalance between the political leadership and the armed forces' command. Fears to that effect were expressed Thursday by the socialists' Coalition for Bulgaria (CfB) during debates on the proposed revisions. The socialists' fears are prompted by the introduction of the office of Permanent Secretary who will be a civilian with a rank equal to that of the Defence Chief. CfB argued that this enhances the powers of the Defence Minister. Control on the budgets of the military schools gets transferred to the Ministries of Defence and of Education, and their Rules of Procedure and Organization are approved by the government on the Defence Minister's proposal.
***
All papers run reports on the Thursday hearing of the embezzelement case of the former owner of FC CSKA and manager of Kremikovtzi steel mill Alexander Tomov. He is quoted as saying that the real culprits for the ruin of Kremikovtzi are former Prime Minister Sergi Stanishev, his Economy and Energy Minister Peter Dimitrov and advisor Rossen Karadimov.

On February 6, Tomov and three other persons were indicted of embezzlement and documentary offence involving the disposition of money and property of CSKA and Kremikovtzi to an aggregate value of 35,156,820 leva. Upon conviction, the charge carries a maximum prison term of 20 years.

CSKA's former owner Vassil Bozhkov testified at the Thursday hearing and it emerged that he sold his shares in CSKA for 15 million euro, the papers say. Prosecutor Roman Vassilev is quoted as saying by "Troud" that he is considering the option of subpoenig CSKA and Kremikovtzi's ex-owner, Pramod Mital.

In a surprising comment outside the courtroom, football coach Dimiter Penev suggested that arch-rivals CSKA and Levski, because of their poor results, should merge into a single team to raise the aggregate level, "24 Chassa" says. Penev, too, testified against Tomov.

***
Sofia Mayor and former Education Minister Yordanka Fandakova is the politician who has made the biggest progress, according to a Mediana poll reported in the Friday papers. Approval in Fandakova has picked up to 38 per cent from 28 per cent between October and December. Prime Minister Boyko Borissov's approval rating has dropped to 66 per cent from 73 per cent, while that of President Georgi Purvanov gained 1 percentage point to 54 per cent. Next is EU Commissioner Meglena Kuneva (47 per cent, down from 54 per cent).

***
In a "24 Chassa" interview, former Socialist MP Brigadir Asparouhov says that the Left and especially BSP need President Georgi Purvanov and he should consider carefully the option of becoming BSP leader once his presidential mandate is over. He says that for 8 years now BSP "has had a chairman but not a leader".

Asparouhov calls on the head of state to stop rejecting so adamantly the idea of becoming BSP leader again.

EDUCATION

"Troud" reports that Education Minister Sergei Ignatov has put forward for discussion a draft ordinance on wages in education whereby a teacher can be paid an average of 700-730 leva (some 350-365 leva) per month from January 2010. The average wage at present is 670 leva. The base wage of school and kindergarten principals is incerased to 590 from 500 leva. Senior teachers will get an extra 50 leva to their wage, to add up to a total of 483 leva. Head teachers will be paid 516 leva, or 66 leva more. This money is now paid as a bonus to the wage but from January 1 they will be incorporated into the wage, the Education Ministry said.

In a "Troud" interview, the Education Minister says that the format of the exam after grade 7 will be announced just before Christmas. Sample tests will be published on the Education Ministry website. The important thing for high schools is to make a transition from academic-style to more practice-oriented education, Ignatov says. "I don't think it is normal to talk of 'discourse' in grade 7," he says. He believes that education in history and in literature should be synchronized and that school books should be written by classroom teachers.

***
In an article in "24 Chassa", the Rector of the Sofia University of National and World Economy, Prof. Borislav Borisov says that the Academic Personnel Development Bill which will replace the 1972 Academic Degrees and Titles Act should be handled with caution. The new legislation should take effect before late May 2010 and be in force for the start of the new academic year in the autumn.

ECONOMY

The crisis has brought to light the shadow economy, "Pari" says in a front-page story. "Sega", however, writes of a dramatic increase of illegal trade in cigarettes, liquor and fuels, and also says that 92 per cent of family doctors and dentists are concealing incomes. The cigarette market in Bulgaria is around 2.3 billion leva and the budget loses over 700 million leva a year from unpaid excise duties and VAT, says Tihomir Bezlov of the Centre for the Study of Democracy.

***
The Financial Supervision Commission has instructed the Board of Directors of the Bulgarian Stock Exchange to revise its rules of procedure within the next three days to undo the delisting of 229 public companies, "Klassa" reports in a front-page story. According to the Stock Exchange rules, the said companies do not comply with a requirement for an average monthly turnover of 4,000 leva and 5 transactions a month, which means that there is no room for these companies at the stock exchange. The Financial Supervision Commission, however, argued that delisting the companies threatens the interests of 912,342 individuals and businesses. Bulgarian Stock Exchange CEO Bistra Ilkova tells "Klassa" that they are in the middle of administrative procedures which need to be observed, and it is early days for taking a stand on the Commission's instructions.

***
Bulgaria is among the countries with the biggest decline of housing prices in the third quarter, according to a report by the Knight Frank consultants quoted in "Dnevnik". The report is based on a survey of 42 countries. The decline in Bulgaria is 28 per cent year-on-year. The slump is bigger (over 34 per cenet) in Latvia and Estonia and in Dubai which has had a record-setting decline of 47 per cent.

SOCIETY

Bulgarian men, as well as Slovak and Slovenian men, leave their parents' home later than anybody else, infrequently go to the movies and concerts and almost never attend cultural events, "Dnevnik" writes reporting a Eurostat survey. The survey found that Bulgarian men leave their parents' home at the age of 31.5 years. Bulgarian women do this at the age of 27, as they do elsewhere in Europe.

***
"Standard News" reports that proposed new paid-parking arrangements for Sofia divide the capital city into three zones, and the first - central - zone will charge an hourly parking rate of 3 leva (up from 2 leva and 1 lev in the other two zones). The hike of parking rates has been proposed by the CEO of the municipal parking company, Marchelo Dokovski.

***
A buyer is ready to pay 13 million leva to the Bulgarian owner of an alleged Claude Monet, "Monitor" reports. The painting was put up for sale when the owner, Choude Georgiev, defauled on a 700,000 leva (350,000 euro) loan. An appraiser found the painting to be a fake and set its price at 3,975 leva. Georgiev claims that Western appraisers have confirmed that it is a real Monet. He says its real price is 24 million euro.


Links to some Bulgarian info websites in English:

· http://www.bta.bg/site/en/indexe.shtml
· http://www.novinite.com/index.php
· http://www.focus-fen.net/


Most discussed topics of the day –December 11, 2009

· The Chairman of the Order, Lawfulness, Justice (OLJ) party, Yane Yanev, told a news conference on Friday that six ministers in the current government are involved in conflict-of-interest situations. He said these are Environment and Water Minister Nona Karadjova, Foreign Minister Rumiana Jeleva, Education, Youth and Science Minister Sergei Ignatov, Culture Minister Vezhdi Rashidov, Regional Development and Public Works Minister Rosen Plevneliev, and Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Simeon Djankov.
According to OLJ, at the time when they took office as ministers, the six were members of commercial corporations or non-profit organizations.

· The Bulgarian-Russian Commission for Economic, Scientific and Technical cooperation concluded its 13th session with the signing of four bilateral documents.
The Commission's Co-Chairs Bulgarian Economy, Energy and Tourism Minister Traicho Traikov and Russian Energy Minister Sergey Shmatko signed the minutes of the session. The sides signed also a Framework Agreement for design development and construction of the "Indje Voivoda" water-power system and a Memorandum of Mutual Understanding and Cooperation in metrology between the Bulgarian Institute of Metrology and the Russian Federal Agency on Technical Regulating and Metrology. The fourth document signed on Friday was a plan for consultations between the Foreign Ministries in 2010.

· European Union nations have agreed to give 7.2 billion euros to help developing nations tackle climate change. The 'fast start' money is Europe's contribution to helping the developing world adapt to global warming over the next three years and to encourage the ongoing UN climate change conference in Copenhagen to do more.